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The Biography of Cometan
Early life
Cometan, honoured as Cometan the Contemplator, was born Brandon Reece Taylor on 1st July 1998 at approximately 5:30pm in Sharoe Green Hospital (now demolished) in the city of Preston in the English county of Lancashire in the United Kingdom to Sean Taylor (b. 1970) and Louise Counsell (née Warbrick) (b. 1970), two business owners themselves born in Lancashire. The only sibling he had at that time was his older sister, Lucia Richardson (b. 1989), who was nine years his senior and the offspring of his mother from her previous marriage.
His parents had been together since about 1991, but after falling out of love with one other, Cometan's parents split in 2002 when their only offspring was four years of age. Cometan would later never remember a happy moment between his parents during that time; he would remember only the tumultuous arguments between them while his sister attempted to shield him from hearing the rows that occurred in the household. Cometan's parents were never married and were together a total of eleven years.
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Image distributed by Cometanica. © 2020 Millettarian Photograohic Institute (link)
Image distributed by Cometanica. © 2020 Millettarian Photograohic Institute (link)
Image distributed by Cometanica. © 2020 Millettarian Photograohic Institute (link)
Cometan lived in a few different villages and towns around the city of Preston in his early childhood including Bamber Bridge and Eccleston, but later, the young family of four returned to Bamber Bridge where they bought 10 Maple Drive. This is the house that Cometan would call home for the majority of his pre-revelational life up to the age of fourteen.
It was in this house that his parents' relationship bitterly imploded. Cometan would remember his father sleeping on the floor of his bedroom as his parents battled for their equal share of the property. His parents eventually came to an agreement, after which Cometan's father moved out and after this, Cometan would not ever live with his father again.
Not long after his parents' separation, his mother found love again in a young man named Julian Counsell (b. 1978) who moved into the household a year or so after Cometan's father had left. Unlike his sister's father, Cometan's father continued to have a role in his son's life, albeit it a small and disjointed one.
Childhood
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In reaction to the split of Louise and Sean, Cometan's two sets of grandparents, his grandmothers, Hilda Warbrick (1937-2023) and Irene Mary Taylor (1932-2015), a mother of ten children herself, and his grandfathers, William "Bill" Warbrick (b. 1937) and Derrick Taylor (1930-2011), came together to put the needs of their grandson at the forefront. It was from this moment onwards that Cometan's grandparents would play a particularly pivotal role in his life in different periods with profound influence later in Cometan's life.
It was his grandparents' intention to reduce the amount of trauma and disruption to their grandson's upbringing as much as possible; to deflect away from him the tumultuous separation of his parent's relationship. It was his paternal grandparents that Cometan would remember as playing a particularly dominant role in his childhood while his maternal grandparents would play a greater role in his adolescence after the death of his paternal grandparents.
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Cometan began his attendance at St Mary & St Benedict's Roman Catholic Primary School at age five in 2003. On his first day there to which his grandmother, Hilda, took him, she would reminisce later that Cometan had naively said to her as they approached the school gates, "Grandma, let's not bother. Shall we go home?" Little did the young boy know then that he would continue his formal education until his twenties.
Cometan spent the majority of the weekends of his childhood at his paternal grandparents' residence at 222 Longmeanygate in Leyland, a six bedroom detached house surrounded by three acres of land. Cometan would remember much of his youth at this home having sleepovers with his many cousins, one of whom, Thomas Taylor (b. 1994), he was particularly close, so much so that when together, people often thought they were brothers rather than cousins. Cometan found comfort in the home of his grandparents and it acted as a sanctuary far away from the traumas of his parent's separation.
Cometan's paternal grandmother, Irene Taylor, was an ardent and devout Roman Catholic who imposed an observance of Traditionalist Catholicism onto her grandchildren, particularly Cometan and Thomas, and their older cousin, Martin. The entire house was cloaked in a deeply religious theme and atmosphere with Catholic relics and paintings draping the walls, statues and icons of Jesus and Mary in every room, and Cometan even contributed to the building of a Mary garden with his grandmother in the grounds of the house. Cometan attended Latin Mass every Sunday throughout his childhood alongside his grandparents and cousins and although he would not pay much attention to the religious beliefs, symbols, and practices then, this potent religiosity would hold a significant influence over his destined vocation.
It was Irene's intention for her grandsons, whom she was highly protective over, to become priests. Cometan would spend much of his Saturdays as a child going from church to church across the county of Lancashire and beyond visiting various Catholic priests and organisations with his grandmother, later leading to speculation that his grandmother was in fact a member of the lay religious organisation, Opus Dei, and the Latin Mass Society. It was Irene's devotion and dedication to her faith in Traditionalist Catholicism that made her a well-known figure in the local Catholic community. Although Irene's ambition was for her grandsons to become priests, she would not know then that her grandson would in fact found his own religion, the creation of which Irene would most likely not have approved of.
Later, Cometan would look back in fond memory of the time he spent at his grandparents' home during his childhood and although he disdained his grandmother for forbidding video games and computers instead opting for playing outdoors at the time, he would later thank his grandmother posthumously for her efforts to keep his mind pure and young. However, the life that Cometan had known for all the years of his childhood would change one night when he made a decision with life-changing consequences.
Early adolescence
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Change was not best welcomed in a household in which a focus was placed on religiosity and tradition rather than education. At the age of eleven, perhaps due to his mind getting older and more independent, Cometan had himself decided to reshape the structure of his life when he told his grandmother, Irene, that he wouldn't be coming to sleepover at her house any longer.
The decision was met with uproar from his grandmother who accused Cometan's other grandmother, Hilda, of attempting to steal away their shared grandson. But most poignantly, Irene attempted to blackmail her upset grandson on the night that this eruption had occurred with tears in order to convince him to change his mind. However, Cometan had made his decision and he stuck to it. After this, his cousin Thomas, who was himself fifteen at the time, also faded out his attendance at his grandmother's home where he had continued to go out of loyal to Cometan as well as to his grandparents' happiness.
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After this decision and the reaction from Irene, Cometan and his grandmother's relationship was never the same again. They would not see each other for a year or so and even when they did see one another, Irene's fondness and care for her grandson was not as strong as it was prior to Cometan's decision. It was this time of his childhood which could be seen as his most lost or difficult; he had parted ways with his paternal grandparents as a structure in his life, but he had nothing else to associate himself with. It was during this time that he began attending Brownedge St Mary's Roman Catholic High School in his hometown of Bamber Bridge, yet he remained quiet and reserved from other children.
It was also during this time that Cometan began to exhibit some strange behaviour, examples of which including lying to his stepmother about his sister, Charlotte, being born and also lying about his stepbrother trying to drown him while on holiday in Turkey. His parents wanted him to find something that he could do to get him involved with other children, but from karate classes to drama classes to beavers clubs, he rejected all of them due to a lack in both confidence and perhaps, self-identity. In February 2007, his first brother, Kieran Taylor (later known as Kieran Taylorian) was born to his father and his stepmother, Nadine Taylor (née Lathrope) (b. 1967) and later that year in August, Charlotte Counsell (later known as Charlotte Sophia) was born to Cometan's mother Louise and his stepfather, Julian.
Sean and Nadine Taylor were married in April 2009 following the birth of their twins, Kent Taylor and Zara Taylor (b. 2008) (both later known using the surname Taylorian) and would have their fourth child together in September 2009 named Jay Taylor (also later known as Jay Taylorian). Cometan's seventh and final sibling would be born Edie Taylor (later known as Edie Taylorian) in February 2011, but on 26th November of that same year, Cometan endured his first experience of loss with his grandfather Derek's death which ricocheted throughout the Taylor family and saw the first fragmentation in the family.
It remains important to note that Cometan was not close with his paternal siblings until after his revelations and The Year of The Gift. Ascending through the years at high school, Cometan showed great promise to his teachers and was a highly achieving student. The two final major events to occur prior to The Year of The Gift in Cometan's life marking the end of his pre-revelational and non-public life was, firstly, the marriage of his mother to Julian Counsell in September 2012 in the city of Naples in Florida, USA. Secondly, two months prior to the marriage, his mother had moved house to Penwortham, an upmarket suburb closer to Preston city centre. 160 Cop Lane would become Cometan's home address during his earliest revelational years up to his early twenties, but during this time, he always moved to his maternal grandparents' home multiple times due to the fact that his mother's new home wasn't ready for him to live there.
The Year of The Gift and later adolescence
The Year of The Gift, as it is known in Astronic culture, was the year that changed Cometan's life forevermore and heralded the start of his public life. On the day of his fifteenth birthday, an idea came to Cometan that he should create his own fictional detective inspired by the inadequacies he felt towards the books he was reading at the time. This character, who was only granted the first name of Jesse initially, would later become fully formed and named Jesse Millete.
Little did Cometan know then that the results of that day and that single idea would immerse him on an unprecedented journey in which his fame would grow to global proportions and would become known as the 21st century's newest religious leader as the ideas for Jesse Millette expanded and culminated in the creation of Astronism.
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If Derek Taylor's death demonstrated the first sign of fragmentation in the Taylor family then it was Irene Taylor's death in October 2015 that served as the final blow to the family, especially due to the fact that in here wake, she left behind an unclear will which left seemingly left her entire estate to her eldest daughter while giving nothing to her nine other children. An uproar ensued with family members turning on one another resulting in a legal case to resolve the issue of the estate's ownership.
Cometan completed his high school education a year after The Year of The Gift and studied at Cardinal Newman College in Preston for two years before embarking on a Business and Marketing degree at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) for three years during which time his revelations intensified to new heights and Astronism formed before him. After coming to the realisation of his vocation, Cometan's sense of identity grew stronger and stronger which emanated from him and was felt by those around him. He spent more time with his young siblings and built up good relationships with each individually. Cometan graduated university with a first class degree and was placed on the prestigious Dean's List.